Best and worst US cities for travelers taxes

Chicago, New York City and Minneapolis rank as cities with the highest travel-related taxes, according to a new study commissioned by the Global Business Travel Association Federation.

Three Florida cities—Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and West Palm Beach—ranked as the best with the lowest travel-related taxes, according to the annual survey, which was released Tuesday.

The ERS Group gathered tax data for the travel association on 50 top U.S. business travel destinations by tallying the amount of taxes paid by a traveler, who stays at a hotel, rents a car and eats restaurant meals for one day and one night. National averages prices—$105.31 for a hotel; $57.05 for a daily car rental; and $93.32 for a daily meal budget—were used to calculate taxes in each city.

Overall, the average daily tax was $29.94, according to the study.

Cities with the lowest travel tax burden

1. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

2. Fort Myers, Fla.

3. West Palm Beach, Fla.

4. Detroit

5. Portland, Ore.

6. Orange County, Calif.

7. Burbank, Calif.

8. Honolulu

9. Ontario, Calif.

10. Orlando, Fla.

Cities with the highest travel tax burden

1. Chicago

2. New York

3. Minneapolis

4. Kansas City, Mo.

5. Indianapolis, Ind.

6. Cleveland

7. Boston

8 Seattle

9 Nashville, Tenn.

10. Houston

American will fly 6,700 flights

CNBC's Phil LeBeau reports on the merger between U.S. Airways and American. The integration will take place over 18 months.

Snowy owls, Northeast travel and more

John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City said it will start trapping, rather than shooting, the snowy owls that have been interfering with planes, according to The New York Times. Within the past two weeks, five planes have hit snowy owls in the New York City area, airport officials said. Snowy owls aren't typically found in the New York area in great numbers, according to the Urban Hawks photoblog.

Travel in the Northeast U.S. will be a challenge Tuesday as about an inch of snow is expected per hour, according to NBC News. By late morning, FlightAware's list of U.S. flight cancellations was more than 1,200.

Now that the American Airlines and US Airways deal is complete, the new company plans to grow its corporate travel segment, Reuters reported. Also, travelers with most types of American Express cards will lose lounge access benefits at the airline as of March 22, SmarterTravel.com reported.

The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday begins a hearing to determine if cockpit complacency caused the Asiana Airlines crash landing at San Francisco International Airport in July that killed three people, according to Reuters.

And finally, you've heard of airline mileage runs. Now travelers are making end-of-year "mattress runs" in order to rack up enough hotel stays to earn points, and stay in the good graces of their hotel loyalty programs, The New York Times reports.